‘Allo! Ah am Zee Bucket! Ah strike Again!

‘Allo. Ah am zee Bucket. You perhaps have seen mah work on other covers, yes? No? Yes yes!

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HERE AH AM. AH STRIKE AGAIN WITH MAH BUCKETNESS. Some vixen named Kim has spotted the efforts of Bucket. 

First, we have zee cover with zee green from 2009. Ah like the green. It is very green, like zee environment, and zee logo at zee bottom of zee email telling me not to print zee email, which Ah do not do since Ah am a Bucket.

Book Cover

But what if you are tired of zee green? Green, it is too… too… too 2009, yes? No? YES YES.

Here Ah Come! For this new book in July, Ah think BLUE. And you know, when you are a Bucket, nothing is too difficult. Especially flipping zee image and adding zee tranquil blue.

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But now, Ah am not sure which Ah like better. The green, or the blue. Which do you prefer, of mah bucketness?

Stay tuned! You never know when Ah, zee Bucket, may strike again!

Comments are Closed

  1. DreadPirateRachel says:

    The green is definitely better. The blue is so… blue. It sort of blends in with the sky and the cravat. It’s insipid, and it makes the heroine look like she’s fading into the background, whereas the green pops. It looks more energetic, it looks better with her skin tone. That was pretty sloppy, bucket. You could have picked a more flattering blue.

    Also, it’s 3:30 in the morning, and I read “Elizabeth Beacon” as “Elizabeth Bacon.” I’m going to bed.

  2. LG says:

    While the blue color is perfectly nice, it’s a bit much when you consider that the sky is blue, her cape (or whatever you call it) is blue, and he’s got shades of blue and gray in his clothes. Plus, I like her hair in the first one better – in the second one, whatever they did to brighten it makes it look like there’s a film over her hair.

  3. Peggy says:

    The green has the delicately placed blue spot.  (That is to say your nipple should pop here)  obviously a better choice.

  4. Amanda says:

    I think the blue goes with the cloak better.  And I really like the cloak.  Goes nicely with his gray cravat.

  5. RR Kovar says:

    I can’t tell which is better because I’m strangely fascinated with that possibly sentient bit of cloth attempting to cover the entirety of his neck.

  6. Chelsea says:

    I like the blue…I think because it matches the cloak and the red belt thingy goes better with the red lining of the cloak…maybe I just secretly want the cloak?

  7. hollygee says:

    I like the blue, but they did a way sloppy job—the shadows under the lace are still green. Yeah, the green has better contrast.

  8. Mina C. Lobo says:

    I’m pretty new here so, while this posting cracked me up, I had no clue what it was about till I read the comments.  🙂

    I dig the green, but the dude’s face looks like someone attempted a portrait of a Ren & Stimpy character.  (This last bit probably only makes sense to me.)

  9. Laura-F says:

    The green is nicer but her hair looks prettier in the blue one.

  10. mary frances says:

    Oh Monsieur Bucket! You did a very fine job on the dress but when you changed the hair from Surgeon’s Lady brown to Fine Season auburn you did a very crap job, her mullet is two-tone. Please explain yourself!

    lol, who care about the dress what about the hair!

    mary

  11. Cialina says:

    I prefer the blue!

  12. Joanna says:

    One big problem with bucketizing is that doing it fast and cheap means doing it sloppily. If you look at the lace around the neck in the blue version it’s still reflecting/edged by green and both of her hands/arms are still reflecting green. Makes sense if she’s wearing a green dress; if she’s wearing a blue dress she may just be molding.

  13. cayenne says:

    Wow, I didn’t realize Bucket had such an outrageous accent!  I’m now envisioning (enhearening?) Steve Martin as Clouseau, which is somewhat scary when I haven’t had enough coffee.

    Anyway, I like the green one.  Bucket screwed up the hair in the second one so badly that I can’t see anything else.

    – -k

  14. Emily says:

    @ Mary Francis LOl
    I was wondering about the hair. Its certainly the same people, but now they facing the other way. I miss the moon and leaves. Green goes with her skin tone, but blue would look better with my skin tone.
    I think I like the green better, although with the blue you get more cape.  I like the green because of the angle or something.

  15. And—getting paid twice for simple change of costume and direction, no? VERY nice.

  16. Sandra says:

    Wow, I didn’t realize Bucket had such an outrageous accent!

    It’s pronounced Bou-que, doncha know? As in Hyacinth? Which is the color picture number 2 reminds me of.

    used77: Not yet, but they’re getting there.

  17. Oh, but the magic, the power of such covers, reproducing themselves.

    And after the shoot?
    Rubbing her temples, she felt her headache fade, and as she opened her eyes, she was there in the mirror, elegant with her bare shoulders and neck. She could have been Aphrodite,  the way Damien had stared at her, disarmed and beguiled. Damn it, she had him by the throat and groveling!
    Which—led them to where, to what? The past? She thought of him all those months ago, when he first pulled back the robe from her shoulders, touching her with silken lips, his eyes half-closed. What, madam, did you expect when you stretched your charming body so very beautifully across my bed? What, madam—what was I to you?
    Yes. What was she thinking, offering herself to snake?
    But done is done. Over is over. Ancient history, all.
    She unzipped her dress and stepped out of it, along with the monster petticoat. Thanking them for their good service, she folded them over her arm and reached for the wardrobe door—which opened of its own.
    Out stepped Damien, and as she turned to escape, he grasped her around the waist, breathing in her ear: “No more games, Maeve.”
    She could have screamed and laughed, it was all too absurd. “What now, dark lord? You tie me up?”
    “No. You might like that.”
    She felt him tense. There, in the long mirror before them, they stood: she, a cornucopia in a white corset; he, smoldering in black. Just like their Romance novel cover. Oh Fate! He kissed her open mouth.

  18. PamG says:

    Hates them both.  Lay out’s fine; don’t care about the color.  BUT the guy has Lou Ferrigno’s jaw, JFK’s hair, and George W. Bush’s just slightly too close set eyes and overall smirky self-satisfaction.

  19. anna says:

    Cover 1 was also used on Emily May’s “The Earl’s Dilemma.” No apparent alterations. Perhaps ze bucket was on ze holiday.

  20. Suzy K says:

    link to cover for Earl’s Dilemma
    http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0263868141.01._SY190_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

    how many more??

  21. SB Sarah says:

    @mary frances: Bucket asked me to pass along a message.

    ZUT ALORS. AH do not mess with zee mullet! Zee mullet, it cannot be improved.

    It is a majesty best left on its own, which is to say, LEFT ALONE FOR ZEE LOVE OF POMME FRITES. Quelle horror, les mullet.

  22. robinjn says:

    Really, really awful job changing the blue to the green. Especially the hair, which looks like they just made a vector shape that sort of kind of went around the hair area, colored it red then reduced the opacity.

    Yo! Cover artists! Hue/Saturation and masking are your friends!! It’s really, really easy even.

  23. EbonyMcKenna says:

    Now I have Pepe Le Pew stuck in my head.

    Merci, merci vraiment Monsieur Bucket.

  24. Steven says:

    every time you make these posts i think about Disney’s Sleeping Beauty with the faeries fighting over the color of the princess’ dress

    RED
    BLUE
    RED
    BLUE

    Personally I was always a bigger fan of the blue, for for the sake of this cover I like “zee green” better. Then again I might be biased because I also like the way the cover is flipped better on the green-dress book

  25. Jilli-Bean says:

    Zee green, not only because it looks nicer, but because you can see where they didn’t paint her hair all the way with zee blue. The lock of hair covering her ear is still that dark brown from zee green cover and it ruins the image of having at least attempted a decent job, mai non?

  26. sweetsiouxsie says:

    Oh!!!! La! La! La! la! La! (said with a french accent). You are missing zee best one yet! The same hunky guy is used on zee cover of Johanna Lindsey’s paperback “That Perfect Someone” and Christine Feehan’s latest hard cover version of “The Dark Prince”. C’est tres magnifique!!!!

  27. Emily says:

    So the Earl’s Daughter has One Final Season to become the Surgeon’s Lady. Yeash!

  28. Susan says:

    You know what the truly depressing thing is?  Somebody at the various publishers got a bonus for cutting costs on cover art. After all, those dumb romance readers never notice stuff like this…

    Think I’ll look at some Peter Wingfield pictures to cheer myself up.

  29. Zee horizontal flip and zee colour changee are ezee in zee Photoshop.

  30. robinjn says:

    You know what the truly depressing thing is?  Somebody at the various publishers got a bonus for cutting costs on cover art. After all, those dumb romance readers never notice stuff like this…

    You know what the truly depressing thing is to me as a graphic designer? Somebody got paid for doing this shoddy job, and probably paid well. This level of work takes about, oh, 5 minutes (max, literally) to do in Photoshop. Wonder what they charged the company for it?

  31. TracyP says:

    LOL.  Thanks for ze giggles.  🙂

    I like the blue, but I’m always partial to blue.  And I prefer the hair color of the second one, but you’re all very right in saying it was poorly done photoshopping.

  32. elaine mueller says:

    if it were different publishers that might be understandable, even semi-sorta forgivable.  but two harlequin historicals and a mills & boon?  guess the publisher doesn’t think much of their authors if they’re so willing to give them recycled and re-recycled covers.

    merde alors, zat is zee beaucoup tack-ee

    (left62, c’est moi)

  33. Helly says:

    that possibly sentient bit of cloth attempting to cover the entirety of his neck.

    It is absolutely alive. I like the green better, in the blue dress she looks preggers. I know it is the same picture, probably has something to do with the way the title is placed.

  34. redgirl says:

    Ah, zee bucket! You come again to show us the dark underbelly of the romance publishing world! We are grateful and prostrate ourselves before thee.

    I agree with the green team. Also:

    She unzipped her dress and stepped out of it, along with the monster petticoat.

    I almost died at the mention of the zipper

  35. deborah conner says:

    He has zippers, too. She told me.

  36. redgirl says:

    I’m almost imagining this “monster petticoat” to be like her secret lover, hidden under her skirt

  37. Well, someone has to sit for these portraits, at least the first time. Imagine.

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